Week 11

This week I did very little sewing/crafting.

I baked a little:

And took care of messy kids:

My 13 year old daughter made this awesome cake for her friend's birthday!

And I got this really nice book in a Quilting swap:

The only stitches I made were in a cross stitch project:

Can anyone guess what this is?

Week 10

Here is what I made this week:

The pattern is called Housewife.

Rolls open with a buttoned pocket inside.

And a zipped pencil case on the end.

A flap lid to cover utensil pockets.

With a felt heart to keep my needles.

This took a pretty long time to make and I broke 3 sewing machine needles during the process!

But, using a lot of hand sewing, I managed to put it together and finish it, buttonholes and all :)

Week 9

I don't have a sewing room.

I keep my sewing stuff in a drawer in one corner of the dining room, and my knitting stuff is in a drawer below that one. My sewing machine is tucked away beside the dr
awers and when I sew I use the dining room table.

The drawer isn't huge, so I have some sewing stuff in the storage in the basement and I keep batting and stuffing in an otherwise unused drawer in the kid's room...oh, and some Christmas projects in a bag under a bed...

Lately the sewing room drawer has been full.

Full of unfinished projects, leftover fabrics from old projects and since the drawer was full, new fabrics and projects, other leftover fabric and all sorts of stuff was piling up

on top of my sewing machine in the corner.

The knitting drawer was also full.
Leftover yarn from the last few knitting projects was laying around in plastic bags, tucked away in two corners of my living room.

Not very pleasing.

On Monday night I decided that I had had enough of the mess.
Got the three boxes from the basement and sorted out the knitting and sewing stuff.

• One box was filled with leftover yarn. I probably have enough wool in there for a huge crochet blanket!
  
• Another box was filled with leftover fabric. When I have more space for my sewing things I will definitely need to sort these by type and color, but for now they are jammed in a box.
• The third box was filled with un-started projects.

Up in the drawer I now keep notions, thread, cutting tools, needles, pins and necessary things, as well as started projects. I need to finish the things I have started before I start something new to put in the drawer.

The knitting drawer holds my knitting needles, some knitting magazines and new yarn:

These are all my sewing efforts this week so I have nothing to show off except maybe a clean sewing space...

Here is what this part of the dining room usually looks like, with the sewing stuff in the corner:

On top of the drawers are two pincushions. One was made by my mom and the other is made of wool and a sheep horn.

I like to make different faces on it:

This actually was very inspiring and I think it will be easier to sit down and sew when there is less mess :)

Week 8

I didn't finish my bed Quilt because I need batting for it...but I did sew a little as well a knit this week. Here is what I did:

• Knitted the Plain vest for my little girl:

• Sewed a dress from a skirt, also for my littlest one:

It's a bit too big now.

Here you can see the front of the chest better.

• Sewed tights from a t-shirt, for little miss tiny as well, but I can not find them! I've searched everywhere! I guess I will find them stuffed inside some toy later :/
  
• Knitted mittens for my teenage daughter:

They are just plain black mittens since she does not like colors or patterns now.

The dress is made from a skirt that used to belong to my teenager but it had a nasty stain on the front so I cut that panel away, as well as the waistband which had two rows of buttons, then sewed the skirt back together and made the top of the dress out of the white lining of the skirt. I think it looks pretty cute and old-fashioned.
I just wish I had taken a picture of the skirt before cutting it up!

The tights are from a grey and white striped t-shirt that my biggest one also used to own. The side seams are a bit wonky since I am not used to sewing with knits and was testing to find out what settings worked best. I think the plain zig-zag stitch came out the best.

What settings do you use when sewing knits on regular sewing machines?

Oh, and I really really want this book that Dana at MADE wrote! Please someone, give it to me for Christmas ;)

Week 7

R2D2 sweater finished!

I used an Icelandic woolen sweater pattern and tweaked an R2D2 and lightsaber pattern to match it.

Tryggvi is really happy with it so I hope it will be easier to get him to wear wool this winter than last year.

My next knit item will be something made with some of the yarn I received in the knitting swap in September:

I was so happy when I got this in the mail...so much pretty yarn!

But first I'm thinking about sewing something. Today I brought out my sewing machine to sew in the zipper on the woolen sweater and also fixed two pairs of jeans, and now I really want to sew some more...maybe I'll finally finish my bed quilt!

Meow...

Week 6

I'm still working on an R2D2 woollen sweater for Tryggvi, so no photo to share today.

Except maybe this cutie:

This lovely little fur-ball will be a part of our family after two weeks.

I can't wait to give him a squeeze....or million squeezes...

My 13 year old daughter got to pick out a name...meet Pokemon!